


Spellbound

by Red_Tigress



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Language, Mind Control, No Spoilers, Whump, in-fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:59:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Tigress/pseuds/Red_Tigress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enchantress is up to more shenanigans when she renders Tony unable to tell his teammates she's lurking around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this before the movie, so sorry about discrepancies. Also, this is sort of a sequel to Wit Barton and Tony Snark, but you don't need to have read that to get this.

Bruce scowled as Tony came into the living room wearing the big, green foam hands. Thor, who was sitting on the couch across from him, looked amused.

“Tony, those aren’t funny. Kids shouldn’t be idolizing-”

“You?” Tony interrupted. “Look, they already make toy lines for my stuff, Thor’s Hammer, Cap’s shield, Hawkeye’s bow and…” Tony considered. “Well, honestly, kids probably shouldn’t be idolizing a defecting Russian spy with a gun,” Tony briefly glanced around to make sure Natasha wasn’t hiding behind the recliner, ready to shoot him in the head. “But you? C’mon. You’re big! You’re awesome! You’re green!” Tony smashed the foam Hulk hands together making a little ‘grrrr’ noise.

“No, Tony. What if some kid thinks Hulk’s his friend, and runs up when…when-”

“No kid thinks the Hulk’s his friend, they have access to the Internet, Brucey. Besides, it’s too late! They’re already in production.”

“Tony, this isn’t some game! It’s too dangerous, I don’t want those made.” Bruce had taken his glasses off and was glaring adamantly at Tony. Thor knew enough to remain silent from where he sat on the couch, following the conversation back and forth.

Tony took the Hulk hands off and tossed them on the coffee table. “Look, you’re not in charge of the merchandising. Someone else-”

“You.”

“-is. So it’s already a done deal. Kay? Kay.” Tony readjusted the suit he was wearing. “So you guys have a nice night, I’m out.”

“Where are you going?” Thor asked curiously.

“Out. Look, I don’t expect you two to understand, but I’m still the majority shareholder in a major company, I have an image to maintain. But if you wanna order a pizza or something, Jarvis can do that. Just remember to charge it to the credit card, and tip the guy in cash. Otherwise he gets really pissy.” Tony wheeled around humming before Bruce could retaliate, shuffling off to the front door where he had a limo waiting.

The driver was holding the door open for him, and he slid in easily. He was a little surprised and gratified to see a skinny blonde in a tight dress sitting in the seat across from him. “Alright, getting the party started early, are we?” He grinned cheekily, reaching forward for the champaign bottle and two glasses. She moved over to the spot next to him, squeezing his thigh and gently rubbing her lips against his neck. He grinned, pouring the champaign. She interrupted him by moving her lips against his. He felt a slight tingling, then laughed as he spilled the champaign on the floor. “You sure do get right to the point, don’t you? But what is in your lipstick, tobasco sauce?”

She sat back smiling smugly. “Magic.” As he watched, the tight, white, hip hugging dress morphed into a green corset and leggings. Something like a golden crown appeared across her forehead. Tony mentally sighed.

“Hi, Enchantress,” he said disappointedly.

She frowned. “Did you not recognize me out of my usual dress?”

“Um…no, actually. Do you realize how many leggy blondes I come into contact with on a weekly basis? It’s a lot.” He sat back, sipping on his champaign. She hadn’t tried to kill him yet, so he supposed he might as well engage her in conversation. “So, what is it I can do for you?”

“I just wanted to talk to you about the last time we met,” she said, twirling her hair around her fingers. Tony winced. The last time had ended with a possessed Thor, a cracked rib cage for him, and a dislocated shoulder for Clint.

“Yeah, I was about to say, I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

She smiled dangerously. “I will admit, our last encounter left an impression on me. And since you were the only one I could get alone, I wanted to convey a friendly warning to you. I will be in Midguard for a small amount of time. You may be…busy, while I am.”

Tony was thoroughly confused. “Look, lady, I understand that I am a stunning, Midguardian specimen and all, but why are you telling me this? Villains don’t usually go around broadcasting their-” Tony stopped mid-sentence, thinking it over. “Well, I take that back.”

She rubbed her ankle against his, and suddenly he didn’t find it so enticing anymore.

She leaned in close and whispered, “It’s more fun this way,”

He pulled back abruptly. “So you know I’m just gonna tell SHIELD and everyone and they’re going to be on the lookout for you and you’re not going to get anything done. So this was like, the stupidest plan ever.”

She smiled again. “You can try. But I wasn’t lying when I said that was a magic kiss earlier.”  She pulled back, and in the blink of an eye was sitting in the seat across from Tony. “Any time you try and communicate anything about me, or my intentions, you will find yourself unable to do so.”

Tony snorted. “Yeah, okay. I’m going to arrest you now. It’ll…uh, have to be a Citizens’ Arrest, I suppose, since I’m not technically…you know what? Just turn the car around.” He banged on the dividing glass between the back and the driver.

“He is under my control,” she said, indicating the driver. “And you have seen me, and both Loki and Thor in action, yet you still doubt my words. Very well.” She disappeared in a green flame and Tony yelped. A moment later she was gone, but the upholstery seemed to be intact. He frowned as he heard her voice echo around him. “I look forward to seeing you then, Tony Stark.”

He banged on the glass again, muttering something about how 21st century feminism had gone to shit. The driver rolled down the window. “Hey, next time don’t let just any old lady back here, okay?”

The driver gave him a puzzled look out of the corner of his eye. “Sir?”

Tony rubbed his temples. “Just…take me back to my house.”

When they got there, he stormed in through the foyer. Banner, still irritable as ever, looked up from reading something on his lap top. “I thought we had the pleasure of not having your company around this evening.” Tony made a face at him.

“Well, you’ll never believe-” he felt his jaw lock up, and the strange tingling sensation from Enchantress’ kiss found its way to his lips again. He glared at Bruce who was looking at him expectantly. “Give me your laptop,” he ground out, relieved to find that he could talk again. Bruce wordlessly handed it over and Tony practically threw it onto the kitchen counter. He opened a new document, but as soon as he tried to type, his fingers froze millimeters from the keys. He gave a cry of frustration before shoving it back towards Bruce who had gotten up to see what he was doing.

“Are you…okay?” the other man asked confused.

“Just fuckin’ peachy,” he asserted, as he stormed off towards his lab.

Bruce briefly wondered what that had been about, before something caught his eye on the web browser and he promptly forgot all about the Tony’s strange tantrum.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

Tony spent the next forty minutes essentially trying to trick himself into writing down something that had to do with his new predicament and failing. Anything remotely related to “Asgard”, “spell”, “evil”, “hot blonde”, “Viking” or “Norway” would cause his fingers to freeze. He tried emails, word documents, HTML code, text messaging and straight up paper, none of which worked. He was just starting to go for binary when his cell phone started buzzing at the same time Jarvis’ voice came over his speakers. “Sir, your presence is requested immediately. Fully-armored.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he mumbled, pounding the table. He got up to get his armor assembled before he flew outside, hovering around the quinjet his teammates were getting into.

“Yo, Tony, you want a ride?” Clint called up at him.

“No, I’ll meet you there…uh…where is it?”

Fury’s voice came over his comm unit and Tony winced. “SHIELD facility. Trenton.”

Tony barely contained a snicker as the HUD displayed coordinates, and he sped off followed by the quinjet. “You guys couldn’t take care of it yourselves?”

“Not this guy, no.”

They soon found out what he meant when upon entering the facility, Thor took a huge, sandy club-shaped fist to the chest.

They scattered immediately, everyone diving for cover as Hulk went to smash the offending guy into dirt.

“What the hell…is he made of fucking sand?” Clint asked over the comms.

“Gee, Fury, a little heads up would have been nice!” Tony shouted, charging his repulsors.

“I gave you one,” Fury replied. “I said he’s got some sort of weird power that my agents couldn’t deal with, but you were all busy arguing over who’s uniform was in need of an upgrade.” He sounded unapologetic.

The Sandman’s arms turned into tentacles which wrapped around Hulk’s arms and threw him through the roof of the warehouse. Steve jumped out from behind cover, hurling his shield as Clint stood up and let loose a volley of arrows from his bow. They sunk into the body of the man, and he grinned. They all watched somewhat perplexed, before they were forced to take cover as the shield and arrows were spat back out at them.

Steve caught the shield, but Clint ducked with a curse. “Thanks Fury, so I’m pretty much useless here,” he grumbled.

“I’d like to think all my agents serve a purpose,” the Director replied smugly. Tony grinned inside the helmet as he saw Clint almost take his earpiece out, before he just covered it and shouted,

“I hate my boss!”

“We all hate him,” Tony replied.

“I heard that, Stark.”

“I was TALKING about this Sand Guy!” Tony fired his repulsors at Sand Man, who was blasted apart. “Ha!” Tony shouted in triumph. He walked over to Steve, who looked pissed (as per usual) and rapped the back of his gauntlet against his shield. “Job done, let’s go home.”

Thor came flying back in then, looking troubled. “Thor buddy, sorry you missed the action, but it’s taken care of.”

“I beg to differ,” Thor said, pointing. Everyone turned to look and Clint gave a loud groan of annoyance as they saw the sand beginning to fuse back together. “Besides, he is only half the problem. Someone is compelling him to do this,” Thor explained.

Steve looked back at the Asgardian. “What do you mean?”

“He is enthralled,” Thor said, shooting meaningful looks at Tony and Clint.

Automatically, Tony tried to make a sassy remark about the last time Enchantress had enthralled someone, but he felt his jaw locking up again and the nauseatingly familiar sense of tingling in his lips.

“You mean Enchantress?” Clint asked, confused. Thor nodded.

Tony inwardly groaned, since he couldn’t outwardly do much. This must have been what she meant. Which meant that she was here now, or had been. 

“Is she here now?” Steve asked urgently, shooting a sidelong look towards the Sand Man, who was almost completely back together.

Thor shook his head. “I do not think so, for she has not made herself known.”

Tony still couldn’t say anything, so he aimed his repulsor at Sand Man again, who promptly exploded outward from the force displacement. It made no sense. Why would she enchant random bad guys to attack them, tell Tony, but not let him tell anyone else? Unless…

“Natasha! What does SHIELD keep in here?” Everyone looked at him.

“I don’t…I’m not sure. Why?” He was about to tell them why, but found his jaw locking again. Goddamn it, this was getting annoying.

“Never mind,” he said, booting up his thrusters and flying to the other end of the warehouse, trying to read the text on various crates and boxes as he went.

“Tony! Get back here! Where are you going?” Steve’s irritated voice floated over his comm.

“Bathroom,” he said, not even bothering to try and explain.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

As the Sand Man began to reform, Steve had to physically fight the urge not to run after Tony just so he could pound his face in. He didn’t know where the man had gone, and right now he didn’t care. He still had three teammates who would more or less do what he asked. And Hulk.

“Clint, do you have any arrows that…freeze things?” He knew the man often carried explosive and gaseous arrows.

Clint looked at him sourly. “Oh, sorry, I left that in my OTHER quinjet,” he quipped.

“Not helpful,” Steve snapped. He couldn’t help it. Tony’s hasty departure had made the frustration with the whole situation rise to new levels. He was granted a slight reprieve as Hulk fell through the roof, roaring and trying to pound the sand into the floor.

“I know where I can find something that would help in here,” Natasha added quickly. She sped off the other direction without waiting for acknowledgement.

“Good to see one of you knows what your boss keeps in here.”

“It’s not my job to catalogue every single item SHIELD has. This place is like Raiders of the Lost Ark! Oh, I guess you haven’t seen that, since it…was sorta…about you…in a way…” Clint trailed off, unsure of how to continue. Both Steve and Thor looked at him strangely. “Never mind,” he mumbled.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

This was hopeless. There was no way he was going to find what Enchantress had been looking for, one, if it was even here and two, if she hadn’t already taken it. She didn’t seem to be here now though, but he would probably have to hack into SHIELD’s files later (again) to see what could possibly hold any interest for her. He zoomed around, moving back towards the sounds of battle.

As he got closer, he saw Hulk grappling with the Sand Man and losing. He couldn’t get a grip on the guy, and seemed to be getting more and more frustrated by it. Thor and Steve were trying to back up Hulk and distract Sand Man as Natasha ran towards him with something. Clint stood off to the side, unable to help much.

Something caught Tony’s eye, and the HUD highlighted a floating piece of concrete above Clint. Tony narrowed his eyes at the green glow surrounding it, before it started dropping. He tried to call out Clint’s name, but his jaw had locked again.

He couldn’t blast it apart; Natasha was too close, and the chunks were too big to not do damage to her or Clint. He flew right at Clint, who didn’t seem to notice that the big, hulking, loud iron armor was rushing towards him.

He crashed into the archer who gave a yelp of surprise, but he had been going too fast and the wall was too close. He banked, trying to whip the stabilizers to the side to turn them, but they were in imminent danger of being smeared across the floor. His shoulder bounced off the concrete and he unconsciously let go of the archer, his knee slamming into Clint’s lower leg. He felt it give.

“Clint!” he shouted, quickly looking behind them. The magically floating concrete was gone. Tony inwardly cursed.

Natasha had just thrown the freeze grenades, rendering Sand Man inert when she heart Clint’s cry of agony. All four of them including the Hulk turned around to see Tony pulling himself off of Clint. As they rushed over, Natasha saw Clint’s hands hovering above his shin.

“Shit!” she leaned down, trying to assess the damage. As soon as her fingers touched his shin, she felt bone shift and Clint bit back a scream. “It’s broken,” she said.

Steve roughly pulled Tony up by the arm before practically pushing him away from the injured archer. “What the _hell_ are you doing?!” Tony staggered backwards looking from Clint on the ground back to Steve. “Well?”

They were all looking at him, expecting an answer. Even Hulk quivered with barely contained energy from behind Thor.

“I…I…can’t explain,” Tony stuttered.

“You’d best start,” Natasha seethed.

“It...was…an…accident…” They couldn’t see his face, but Tony’s words sounded very strained.

“That wasn’t an accident, Tony! That was you being irresponsible and injuring a teammate!” Steve was practically face to face with the mask now, but Tony kept it closed, which irritated him more.

“You didn’t…see…”

“See what, Tony? You barreling into Clint and breaking his legs because you don’t care what happens to anyone else around you?” Steve turned around and they could see the muscles in his back and arms tighten.  “Just…leave. Just leave, Tony.”

The suit fired up, and Tony flew out of the warehouse as Natasha gently lifted Clint to his feet.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

A few hours later, Clint hobbled in on crutches into the house, a newly made cast plastered around his leg. Natasha walked closely to him, as if expecting him to fall at any moment. “I can manage,” he hissed at her. She shrugged. 

As they made their way to the living room, only Steve sat there, reading a newspaper. Clint assumed everyone had gone to do their normal post-mission stress relief type-things. They all needed alone time after missions, even relatively light ones. As they got closer, Steve stood up.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Like I have a broken leg,” Clint mumbled.

He could see Steve’s jaw clench. “I’m going to go talk to him,” he said.

Something tugged at the corner of Clint’s mind, but he couldn’t quite place it.  He had the nagging feeling like there was something he had missed. He nodded. He was still somewhat pissed at Tony, and didn’t feel like talking to him himself.

“You better do it before I do,” Natasha asserted, moving her hand to her gun. Steve’s eyes widened and he nodded, before moving downstairs.

Obnoxiously loud music was blaring from Tony’s lab. Steve approached the door, punching in his numerical passcode to open the door.  He expected the door to open, but the interface flashed red, with the words “DENIED.”

Puzzled, he tried again. The same thing happened. He sighed. Tony was restricting access to his lab. He knocked loudly on the door. “Tony!” The man either couldn’t hear him or was ignoring him. This was becoming irritating quickly. Just when he thought he had calmed down after today’s mission, Tony’s behavior had taken almost no time at all to get under his skin. He hit the door loudly, taking some small, guilty satisfaction as he saw Tony flinch, but the man didn’t turn around. Muttering, Steve gave up and turned back around, walking back up the stairs.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

Tony had known when he left that warehouse that he was going to have to finish this like he was used to; by himself.

Normally, he didn’t care what other people thought of him.  But these were people who he trusted with his life. Who he thought trusted him.

But apparently they didn’t.

And it hurt. More than he would care to admit.

So he did one of the things he was best at. He compartmentalized.

He focused on perusing through SHIELD’s files, effectively forgetting about the events of the afternoon. Besides the Tesseract, he was interested to see what other Norse items they had gotten their hands on.

He had figured out the game. It was meant to be a distraction, to keep all of them on edge. To keep Tony from putting the pieces together, and to keep the others suspicious of Tony’s strange behavior.

He ignored Steve when he came down. He had locked everyone out. He didn’t want to talk to any of them. They would just interrogate him with questions he couldn’t possibly answer. He was somewhat surprised when Steve lost his temper, banging on the door and making him flinch. He winced. The guy must really be angry with him. He put it out of his mind.

He began to go through the listings of some of the top secret stuff SHIELD was guarding in that warehouse. He had no idea what any of these names meant. He didn’t want to have to ask Thor, but it looked like he had no choice. He had been looking through them an hour, when he heard another door lock. Cautiously, he glanced over his shoulder.

Clint was standing at the door, on crutches, looking at him …not accusingly, but expectantly, Tony decided. He gave a sigh, told Jarvis to lower the volume of Styx and to unlock the door. He turned back around, staring at the monitor. Clint hobbled up behind him.

**_AV~AV~AV~AV_ **

Clint wasn’t really surprised at Tony’s hunched, unwelcoming form. When he was out of the suit, the man was all body language, and the archer wasn’t surprised that his body language right now said he didn’t want to talk. “Hey,” he started.

“I’m sorry,” Tony mumbled. He didn’t look up. “How’s the leg?”

Clint leaned heavily on his crutches. “Hurts,” he admitted. “But it’s nothing I haven’t experienced before. Look, uh…I know I was sort of on the ground riddled with pain before, but…we never got your side of the story before you took off.”

“Does it matter?” Tony mumbled, chin in his hand.

“Yes, Tony, it does.” Clint inwardly cursed. Steve should be down here doing this, he was the fucking team leader. But Tony was always a stubborn asshole when it concerned personal feelings. And Clint could tell he was hurt.

Tony huffed, turning in his chair to face him. “I already told you, I can’t explain.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re lying.”

Tony’s lips tightened into a thin line. He looked at Clint with a mixture of appreciation, anger, and determination before he finally spoke. “I’m sorry about your leg,” he said again. Clint gave a breath then nodded.

“I’ll see you later,” he said. It was clear to Clint that Tony didn’t want to talk any more than the little he had said, so he hobbled back upstairs.

Natasha was waiting for him. “What did he say?” she asked.

“He apologized,” Clint said, sitting warily sitting down on the couch. He had just about reached his excitement quota for the day, and even thought he had gotten pain killers, his leg was starting to twinge, badly.  He winced. “But he didn’t say anything else.”

Natasha gave an exasperated sigh.

“I think there’s something he’s not telling us,” Clint said.

“Yeah, like why he broke your leg.”

“No, I mean…” Clint wasn’t really sure how to explain it. He saw Steve walk in out of the corner of his eye, hanging around the door frame, listening. “Why would he do that? I saw him come back from the storage area and then I turned around. He was just…hovering there. He didn’t come back at full speed.” He looked from Natasha to Steve, the latter of whom looked at the floor guiltily. “Look, I’m just saying…we didn’t really…give him a chance.”

Steve’s eyes flashed angrily. “Yes we did, Clint. Two, actually. The second time he wouldn’t even open his door to me, and he didn’t tell _you_ anything. If he wants to be stubborn, that’s fine, but not about our teammates’ health.” Steve angrily whirled around and stomped down the hall.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Clint was determined to try again. He popped some aspirin, and hobbled down to Tony’s lab. He was surprised when he got there that most of the lights were dim. He punched in his code and the door opened. 

“Tony?” He tried. 

“Mr. Stark is not here currently, Agent Barton.” Jarvis’ ever-helpful voice answered.

“Well where is he?”

“You are not authorized to have this information.” Clint sighed, slinking into the vacant seat in front of the monitors. That wasn’t really unusual. Lazily, he tapped the keyboard to bring the monitor out of sleep mode and see what Tony had been working on. He immediately saw some files on his desktop. Curious, he highlighted the one that said Brísingamen.

Schematics and drawings of some sort of pendant popped up, along with notes in both English and something that looked like runes. His eyes scanned over the information. “Jarvis, get Thor and Captain Rogers down here.”

Both came down about ten minutes later. Steve scanned the room for Tony. “Where is he?” he asked. 

“Not here,” Clint said brusquely. “Thor, what is this?” He pointed to the screen. Thor crouched down, reading. Clint could see his jaw clench. 

“It is Brísingamen, the amulet of Freyja,” he said coldly. “I was not aware Nick Fury had his hands on this artifact.”

Clint turned back to the screen. “Enchantress was, apparently. What does it do?”

“For Amora, it would amplify her magic,” Thor said simply. “She would be able to summon a dangerous creature from one of the nine realms, or enthrall more than one person.”

“Why doesn’t Freyja come down and like…pick it up?” Steve asked. Thor and Clint looked at him. “I’m…guessing it’s not that simple,” Steve said. 

“Indeed. Since…since the tesseract,” Thor was always careful to tiptoe around the incident involving his brother, “Nick Fury seems to have figured out a number of ways to keep magical objects hidden.”

Steve leaned down to look closer at the screen. “If Tony knew about this, why didn’t he tell us? Why did he take off?”

Clint rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Cap, you basically threw him out and refused to listen to him.” Clint could see the anger bubbling back into Steve’s eyes as he was about to say something, but Thor interrupted.

“Perhaps it is not that simple. In the warehouse, I sensed numerous spells, too many to simply be used to control the man of sand.” 

Clint’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did not conclude this until I reflected on the incident later. I admit…magic is not my greatest strength.”

“Do you know what the other spells were?” Steve asked.

Thor thought for a moment. “At least one was similar to the enthrallment spell we witnessed, but not the same. Do you…think she was controlling Tony Stark?”

“No,” Clint said hesitantly. “At least…not directly. Otherwise she’d have just had him shoot me.” Clint thought back to their conversation. 

_I can’t explain._

Not that he didn’t want to talk about it, or that he was lying about it, but that he physically, maybe couldn’t explain. Clint voiced his thoughts to Thor, who nodded. 

“It certainly would be in the realm of her expertise, to create a spell of such a nature.” They both turned to look at Steve, who had guilt plastered all over his face.

“I…I…didn’t even think…”

“That such a thing was possible?” Clint snapped. He sighed, turning back around. “Sorry. The leg’s making me jumpy.” He moved to shift his broken limb. “But Jesus, Steve, if you don’t start trusting him now, when will you?

Steve didn’t have an answer for that. “Where is he?” he said quietly.

“I don’t know, Jarvis won’t tell me.”

“Jarvis, call Nick Fury. Tell them it’s Captain Rogers.” Steve knew that most called from Tony got ignored, and he wouldn’t hesitate to drop his own name to get a direct line. 

“Speak,” Fury’s voice came over the speakers.

“Where are you keeping…” he looked at Thor.

“Brísingamen,” Thor supplied.

Fury hesitated. “Why?”

“Because Stark’s gone after it by himself to stop Enchantress from getting her hands on it, and we need to find them before he gets killed himself.”

“And then you will permit me to take the item,” Thor added.

“Woah, wait a second,” Fury interrupted. “Why is he going by himself?”

Guilt washed over Steve again. “I’ll explain in the debrief. But we need a location, right now.”

AV~AV~AV~AV

Tony had told the SHIELD employees who were attending the warehouse in upstate New York to beat it. They hadn’t known Iron Man was coming, and luckily they were more frightened of him when he was angry than they were of calling their boss to find out why Iron Man was there.

It had made his job easier as he stomped down to a lower level of the warehouse. He was just reflecting he might have made it here first when a huge axe, the blade the size of his whole chest plate, came swinging down. 

He hopped backwards, as he heard a laugh from Enchantress, and her personal bodyguard, an angry-looking Skurge, stepped into view. The man was all bulk, black armor, greasy-looking face, and wickedly huge axe. He was growling menacingly. 

“Oh come, now, you didn’t think it’d be that easy.”

“I thought that…” he felt his jaw locking up as he tried to fire off an insult at her.

“Hmm, there’s no need for that anymore I suppose.” The muscles of his face relaxed, and he breathed a sigh of relief before aiming his repulsors at Skurge.

“I’m giving you guys one chance to take your renaissance-fair asses and leave.” Enchantress sauntered into view, leaning lightly in the doorway behind Skurge, twirling the pendant around her finger.

She gave a fake pout. “And here I was hoping you two would entertain me. Tell me, Stark, where are your friends?” He could tell by the mocking smile on her face she knew he was alone, and that his teammates had abandoned him, but he didn’t give her the satisfaction.

“I told them I could handle you myself. You are sort of a pushover. I mean, c’mon, you just enchant a bunch of men to do all your fighting for you. You don’t have any real strengths-”

He was cut off by the axe swinging horizontally at him. “Guess again,” Skurge rumbled. “I’m here of my own free will.”

Tony fired a repulsor blast at him. Skurge crossed his arms over his chest and planted his feet. Tony was surprised to see it only pushed him back a few feet and seemed to do real little damage. “So, you’re the type who voluntarily gets on the losing team? You must be a real masochist.”

“You don’t have a team, Stark,” Enchantress smirked again, and began moving towards the exit. “But I’ve had my fun with you. Kill him,” she waved her hand and Skurge moved to attack, rushing him. Tony’s hands flew to the axe handle where he grappled with it, the force pushing him backwards. But he used Skurge’s momentum against him and whirled him around, letting go. Skurge stumbled and Tony turned back, starting after Enchantress, but Skurge had recovered quicker than he expected.

Tony began to turn back around, but Skurge’s strike was too quick. The axe embedded itself in the right side of his back.

He gave a howl of pain as the axe split through his armor with a screech and he felt the blade slice open his back. He fell to his knees. “Flares!” he growled through his teeth. The flares went off, making Skurge let go and cry out, as Tony reached around trying to get the axe loose. His armor had stopped most of the hit, but he could still feel the edge of the blade in his flesh from his shoulder blade down to the small of his back.

A foot landed heavily on the other side of his back, and he grunted as it pushed him down. He gave another small cry of pain as he felt the axe rip free. Skurge raised his axe over his head for the killing blow. “It’s been fun,” he growled.

A huge clang sounded, and Skurge was knocked off his feet as Thor’s hammer hit him squarely in the chest. With a bestial roar, the Asgardian flew into the room, tackling Skurge as he tried to get up and together they hurtled through the wall into another room.

“Tony!” Suddenly, Steve was at his side. He tried to move his hands underneath him, to push himself up. But he was dizzy and he started to fall to the ground. 

“Ugh, hey, Cap,” he said. The sounds of Thor and Skurge could be heard from the other room.

“Tony, I’m so sorry, for everything,” Steve said in a rush. Tony turned his head so he could see the man’s face better, guilt-ridden and anxious.

“ ‘sokay,” he slurred. “Wouldn’t have…believed me either.”

Steve shook his head, looking for the manual releases on the chest and dorsal pieces. “No, Tony, that’s not fair. Especially from me. I was too quick to pass judgment.”

“Save it,” Tony said. “Where…is she?”

“Gone,” Natasha’s voice said from the doorway. “Is that blood?” she asked, coming over to help Steve and pointing to the darkening pool leeching through the crack in his suit.

“Help me get it off him,” Steve said urgently. There was another crash, followed by a whooshing noise. A minute later, Thor came back through the hole he had made in the wall. 

“Skurge has escaped,” he explained. He watched as Steve and Natasha gently pulled the back plate off of Tony, who gave a whimper as the indented metal came loose from his skin. A hiss escaped Steve, who winced in sympathy.

Natasha pressed her hand to her ear, summoning a med-team.

“Tony, I’m sorry,” Steve said again.

“Happens all the time,” Tony painfully joked. 

Steve’s gut clenched again in guilt at the words.

AV~AV~AV~AV

Tony lay on his stomach, his chin resting on his arms as the doctor started placing gauze over the stitches down his back.

“Eighty-seven stiches. Eighty-seven!” Clint said disbelievingly from a chair next to the gurney. Steve stood off to the side, arms crossed, and head down. Thor was also nearby, sucking down a mug of black coffee.

The armor had stopped the blade from cleaving Tony in two, but it was still deep and before he had gotten the localized anesthesia, he had felt his skin shift unnaturally every time his arm moved. 

“Seriously, Tony, what’s the point of having armor if it’s not gonna do anything?”

“It was a magical axe,” Thor pointed out. Clint rolled his eyes.

“My armor did enough,” Tony mumbled. The combination of blood loss and drugs had made him sluggish, and he didn’t much feel up to having company watching every single stitch put into his back for two hours, but that’s what had happened. But the drugs had been wearing off for the last half hour, and the renewed pain was making Tony testy. “I’m not dead,” he said succinctly, trying to settle it.

“You might have been,” Clint mumbled, shooting an accusatory look at Steve.

Thor saw the look that passed between them and lowered his mug. “I think that is enough, Clint Barton. Captain Rogers could not have foreseen the circumstances preceding the event,” he said evenly. “Nor could I, even.”

Tony’s gaze passed between all of them before he closed his eyes warily. “Look, guys,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed. “It’s done. Don’t worry about it. Let’s just…find her and take the...Bir-thing back-”

“Brísingamen,”

“-and forget this ever happened.” He turned his face away.

“Tony, I’m sorry,” Steve tried for the thousandth time, but Tony cut him off.

“I said forget it. Stop apologizing, Steve, you sound like…well, I guess they did have broken records in the 40s…didn’t they?”

Any reply Steve might have made was cut off by Jarvis.

“Captain Rogers, Thor. I am sorry to interrupt, but Director Fury wants you immediately. He says it’s Enchantress.”

Both of them stood up, looking all business, before they left the room casting furtive glances back at their injured teammates. 

The doctor finished applying the gauze, and Tony sat up with a wince and a mumbled thanks.

As soon as the doctor had left the room, Clint turned to Tony who was doing his best to shrug into a scrub top without jostling his back muscles. “Why are you doing that?”

“Even though it is my house, I doubt everyone would appreciate it if I walked around without a shirt all the time. I don’t have Banner’s beautiful physique.”

“Why won’t you let Steve apologize?”

“He has apologized. Like, 90 times.” Tony hopped off the bed, Clint grabbing his crutches to follow.

“You know what I mean.”

Tony glanced at him suspiciously over his shoulder. “Why do you care so much about my feelings all of a sudden? You never did before. Besides you haven’t forgiven him either, I can tell. I may not have great social skills, but I can still read facial expressions, Clint.”

Clint tensed up, but continued following Tony. How did he say he was afraid at any moment the team could fall apart at the seams? That he was afraid at any moment the most worthwhile unit he’d ever been a part of could just vanish. That he was afraid at any moment he could lose the only friends he’d ever had.

“Maybe I’m just a spiteful person,” Tony continued, “and I want him to feel just a little bit bad.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Clint said. “You know, before he came along, I was Fury’s golden boy?”

Tony snorted. “You were not,”

“Was too,” Clint shot him a grin.

“Clint, I can name like, nine people off the top of my head that Fury likes better than you, Coulson, Hill and Natasha only the tip of the iceberg. The only reason he likes you is because having me on the team makes you look like…the Lusitania compared to my Titanic.”

“So, I’m the lesser known sinking sea disaster?”

“Uh…something like that. It’s a horrible example, I blame the drugs.” They had arrived at Tony’s lab. He punched in his code, and Clint followed him in, sinking into a chair nearby. “Are you just going to hang around all day?” Tony asked him, but not in an annoyed fashion.

Clint shrugged. “What else am I gonna do? Thor and I were supposed to have target practice.”

“For you?” Tony asked, shifting his screens around and reading them. 

“No, for him. I was gonna chuck stuff off the roof and he was going to try and hit them with lightning bolts.”

“Not off my fucking roof you’re not!” Clint grinned.

Two hours later Clint found himself coming out of a light doze as Jarvis bleeped a few times. “Incoming call from Director Fury to you and Agent Barton, Sir.”

“Are you calling us to gloat?” Tony asked distractedly. 

“I need you two…to suit up,” Fury said hesitantly. Clint and Tony looked alarmed at each other before Tony spoke. “Uh, in case you didn’t get the memo, I have a gash the size of the Grand Canyon in my back, and Clint has an inert limb.”

Fury sighed. “Enchantress has…the rest of the team is…indisposed.”

“What do you mean?” Clint growled.

“She’s enthralled them, or whatever Thor calls it.”

“All four of them?” Tony shouted.

“I’m sorry to have to ask you guys to do this, but you have to go in there and stop her.”

AV~AV~AV~AV

SHIELD doctors arrived a few minutes afterwards, with a boot for Clint. It certainly hurt more than walking around on crutches, but at least he was mobile. He refused the painkillers they tried to give him. He needed to be alert to aim.

As he was strapped into it, he watched Tony’s robots assemble the suit on him. Tony winced, leaning forward as the back plate was pressed over his injury. A small whimper escaped his lips as it was actually snapped in place connecting to the front plate. “Jesus, can’t you give him more anesthesia?” Clint snapped at the nearest doctor.

“He already has a lot in his system, it’s…too risky…”

“It’s fine, Clint,” Tony interrupted as the helmet snapped over his face. The eyes lit up as he walked forward. The suit covered up his condition remarkably well, and if it wasn’t for the strained note in his voice Clint wouldn’t have been able to tell he was injured.

They boarded a quinjet being piloted by two other SHIELD agents, and soon they were on their way to the SHIELD complex in Pennsylvania where Enchantress was holding their teammates captive.

AV~AV~AV~AV

The quinjet deposited them in front of the warehouse before it took off. Fury wanted his agents clear, they were dead man walking if they got in the middle of a fight between the Avengers.

Tony entered first, with Clint shuffling along behind him. There was still no sign of any of their teammates, and it was beginning to be a little nerve-wracking. 

Clint’s leg was like a small flame licking at the edge of his senses. Goddamn Asgardians. He was really, really fed up with the whole mind-control schtick. Thank god Thor couldn’t do it. Maybe after this Stark would make them goofy helmets to protect them from it. Stupid, sure, but well worth it in his opinion. They soon came upon the stairs leading up to the scaffolding that led to the rest of the warehouse.

“Think you can get up there, give me some cover?” Tony whispered. Clint nodded. He couldn’t deny that he’d be useless in hand to hand combat at this point, but it made his gut clench to think Tony had to fight everyone by himself, and injured to boot. He’d give him the best damn cover imaginable. 

Slinging his bow over his back, he started pulling himself up the stairs, mostly using his arms to push himself up on the rails and swing his feet onto the steps. Stark walked off loudly, drawing attention away from him.

When Tony entered the largest space in the warehouse, he wasn’t surprised to find Enchantress waiting for him, smiling. She was sitting on top of a large crate in the middle of the room, seemingly quite comfortable with the prospect of being without cover. Bruce was standing at her side, his eyes tinged green, but not the green of the Hulk. His other teammates were nowhere in sight. The amulet of Freyja hung around her neck.

“Why don’t you just give that back and let my teammates go, and we’ll call it a day,” Tony suggested.

“It’s not yours to keep,” she said. She reached out, taking Banner’s chin gently and stroking his hair. “Besides, why not have a little fun with the people who cause me so much trouble before I get up to any real mischief?”

Tony scowled at the treatment of his teammate. “Please. You’re incapable of real mischief. The only thing you’ve ever done is mind control people to be annoying. I’ve fought lawyers, in my own legal department I might add, that packed more punch than you.” He raised his repulsor to fire it at her, but there was a schwing noise, and before Tony could comprehend what was happening, Steve’s shield bashed into his arm, making him misfire.

Steve and Thor stepped calmly into the light, their eyes tinted the same shade of green as Bruce’s, who hadn’t moved during the whole thing except to rub his face further into Enchantress’ touch.

That in itself was making Tony decidedly uncomfortable for his friend. “Forming a new club, I see?” he bit out, leaning into a fighting stance. His back twinged and he winced.

“You are all so exceptionally strong willed, it wasn’t easy,” Enchantress said. But with you all out of the way, and with this,” she lightly moved one of her hands from Bruce’s head to touch her amulet, which was glowing.

“Clint,” Tony said into his comm. “You have to shoot the amulet. Get it off her. She might lose control of the others if you do.”

Clint, who was leaning heavily on the rails of the scaffolding above, drew the bow string back. “Already on it,” he said. His leg twinged again and he grit his teeth, but kept his aim steady. He let go of the string.

The arrow sailed through the air, straight and true, but Clint grumbled in annoyance as he saw Steve take notice and chuck his shield, knocking it out of the air. “Shit,” he mumbled.

Enchantress laughed. “You brought the lame little bird with you! How fortunate!” She looked up towards the dark area where she knew Hawkeye now was. “My spider is hungry.”

Clint felt a weight on his shoulders crashing down on him. As he fell to the floor, he realized it was Natasha’s knees.

AV~AV~AV~AV

Thor and Steve used that moment to attack Tony full out. Thor’s hammer slammed into his chest, propelling him backwards. He hit the floor on his back and gave a small cry of pain. Steve was leaping towards him, and looked like he was ready to jam his shield into Tony’s helmet. He rolled sideways, and Steve landed with the shield splitting apart the floor. 

Tony picked himself up hurriedly, firing a blast at Thor as he ran towards him, shouting. The blast knocked the Asgardian off his feet and he grunted as he hit the ground. Tony spared a glance at Enchantress who was watching distastefully with Bruce still at her side. Why hadn’t she sent Hulk after him? Unless…

Clint grabbed Natasha’s hamstrings and squeezed, hard. She let up her grip enough for him to pull his head out of her lethal grasp. Panting, he scooted backwards, wincing as the movement jostled his leg.

Her face contorted in snarl and she leapt for him. He grabbed her wrists as she got close, swinging her to the side and giving her an extra kick in the back with his good leg. She hit the rails, groaning. “Clint!” Tony’s voice sounded over the comm. “Hit Bruce! She can’t control him in Hulk form!” Tony grunted again and Clint heard another clang from down below as he scrambled for his bow before Natasha got to her feet.

“You want me to shoot Bruce?” 

“JUST DO IT!”

Clint grabbed the railing, pulling himself up as he took aim at their teammate. He shifted his aim to Bruce’s shoulder, hoping it wouldn’t hurt him too much later. Mentally apologizing to the man, he let loose.

Bruce stumbled backwards with a cry of pain, clutching his shoulder. Enchantress whirled, fury and then fear in her eyes when she saw the arrow sticking out of him as he began to tremble. His eyes shifted color from the light green of her magic to the electric green of the Hulk. He began to change.

Tony was on his back, gripping Thor’s wrists as he tried to bring his hammer down on his face, but he heard the roar that signified the change, smiling slightly to himself. Enchantress shouted the name of her axe-wielding body guard, but as soon as he appeared out of thin air, the Hulk’s meaty fist sent him flying across the warehouse.

Thor leapt away from Tony, he and Steve running towards the Hulk to protect Enchantress. Tony got shakily to his feet, before flying at Steve and tackling him to the ground away from Hulk. Thor may be able to survive a few Hulk punches, and Steve could too, but it’d certainly hurt him more.

“Clint, shoot the pendant!” Tony gasped into his comm as he got to his feet, narrowly avoiding another shield swing from Steve.

“LITTLE BUSY HERE,” Clint shouted back. Natasha had gotten to her feet right after he fired the shot, and he hadn’t had time to dodge as she kicked him ferociously with the heel of her boot in the cast, cracking it. He had fallen to the ground and swung his bow around, hitting her in the face with the limb. 

She stumbled backwards, but recovered quickly enough, flipping in the air and using the momentum to bring her leg rushing towards his shoulder. He brought his arms up to block it, grunting in pain from the force of the blow. It hadn’t broken his bones, but it certainly had come close. He grabbed her ankle, slamming her down again and using the rail to pull himself to his feet.

He winced as he tried to put some distance between them, and aimed again at Enchantress who was screaming at Thor and Skurge to bring down Banner. He aimed.

The amulet was ripped free of the cord, slamming into the wall.

“NO!” Enchantress screamed. 

Tony saw Thor and Steve stumble, holding hands to their heads. Unfortunately for Thor, Hulk couldn’t tell the difference and he cried out as a huge green arm swung into him again. Tony winced before shouting, “Hulk! Get her! Get Enchantress!”

Hulk turned towards the woman, spitting, as Tony fired up his thrusters and jetted to the wall where Clint’s arrow was handily pinning up the amulet. He snatched it up before landing.

He knew he’d be unable to break it, so he just tossed it smugly and caught it instead. Steve had recovered and was glaring at her and Skurge, and Thor was pulling himself out of the wall. “AMORA!” The look on his face suggested he was ready to tear her face off.

“Time to leave,” she hissed at Skurge. With a flash of green fire, they were gone.

“Oh, and here I was hoping to use a witty comeback,” Tony said, taking a few steps forward. He suddenly felt weak and fell to one knee as Steve rushed over.

“Tony, are you alright?”

He flipped the faceplate up, wincing. “May have…popped a few stitches…” Steve helped him to his feet, as Hulk, sensing the danger was over began to calm down. A few minutes later, Tony caught sight of Natasha helping Clint down the stairs, his arm hooked over hers as he winced with every step. “Well, look at that. The invalids had to come save your asses!” Tony said half-heartedly as the room began to swim.

Thor picked up the unconscious Banner, slinging him over his shoulder. “I am truly sorry for the nature of Asgardians,” Thor grumbled. 

“Us too, big guy,” Clint bit out, as Tony slapped the amulet into Thor’s outstretched hand. Let him deal with it.

Also, Fury would be pissed.

“We should just call ourselves the ‘Asgar-vengers’ and be done with it,” Steve smiled.

“That was horrible Rogers, even for you.” Natasha said.

Steve smiled at her again. “God Fighters!” he tried.

“No,” she said hurriedly.

“The Mortals!”

“Stop it, Steve, I’m already about to pass out from blood loss, I don’t need half-assed, G-rated jokes to be the last thing I hear.”

Together they hobbled back outside.

AV~AV~AV~AV

As Clint was getting his leg x-rayed and re-casted on the helicarrier, and Thor had disappeared with the amulet, the rest had been taken back to the mansion so Tony could get his armor off and his back re-stitched.

“Oh, gross, look at all the blood in there!” Tony giggled, light-headed. 

Steve brought over a wheel chair, which Natasha pushed him into. “Sit the fuck down,” she snarled. He supposed it was her own way of apologizing, as they both pushed him to the infirmary. 

“Who’s gonna help me scrub out my armor?” he grinned cheekily at her. 

“You can do that yourself.”

The doctor seemed a little peeved he had to come back a few hours later, remove the stitches, and then restitch Tony’s wound. Now that the adrenaline had died down, everyone was feeling most uncomfortable about the whole situation. Tony was still really embarrassed on Bruce’s behalf for his actions in particular.

So, of course he talked about them as much as possible to downplay the awkwardness of the situation.

“Bruce, buddy!” he smiled as they pumped more painkillers into him. They wouldn’t risk more anesthesia, so Tony was high as a kite, even though he occasionally winced as he felt the pull of the sutures. “I could see you pitching a tent from space when Enchantress had her hands all over you!”

Bruce looked like he was trying to push his eyeballs out of his head with his fingers.

“That didn’t happen,” Steve said, turning a slight shade of pink. Natasha took the opportunity to cuff Tony over the head again.

He laughed. “Hit me all you want, sweetheart, I can’t feel it!” She grabbed his hair, pulling her face close to his.

“Then I’ll make sure to hit you when you can feel it. Don’t call me sweetheart.” She dropped his head.

“Can I still talk about how Bruce wanted to show Enchantress his gamma radiation?” Everyone groaned loudly as Tony giggled hysterically before the doctor told him to stop moving and ordered everyone to leave before drugged them all. 

They all grumbled, turning to file out. “Wait, Cap!” Steve turned back, moving over to the gurney Tony was on. To his surprise, Tony reached out and grabbed his wrist. “I wanted to tell you…I forgive you. For not believing me earlier…okay?”

Steve swallowed thickly around the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. He supposed he had forgotten how much he wanted that forgiveness in light of the events of the afternoon. He nodded. “Okay.”

Tony looked at him for a moment more, before letting go. “You’re too nice a guy to mope all the time. But… I still think you’re an asshole.” He grinned widely. Steve frowned, then smiled. 

“Fair enough.”

~Fin~


End file.
